After a journey for 54 days, It has reached a stage where Chennai will meet Mumbai a dejavu of 2010 finals. Will Chennai make history repeat itself or Mumbai will help themselves to win their first ever IPL trophy.

Big Finals – Rohit Sharma won the important toss and decided to bat in a slow and tricky pitch. Not a ideal start would have wanted as Mumbai were three down with 16 on the board, with skipper being the last victim. Karthik along with Rayudu struck for a moment and made damage control to put Mumbai Indians back on track., Once karthik was dismissed in came Man from Caribbean, Kieron pollard, who owned this format of cricket, played a gem of an innings even though people around him kept walking away from him. He ended the match with two monumental back to back sixes to give Mumbai a good score of 148/9 in a tricky pitch.

Chennai needing less than 150 to win, got off to a dreadful start, losing 3 wickets that of Hussey, Raina & Badrinath with just 3 on the board. It was Karthik & Rayudu who did the damage control form Mumbai from same position, but Vijay & Bravo failed to do and Jadeja followed with a worst shot of his lifetime to get out for a duck. Which made CSK 39/6 in the half way. Chennai was left alone with their skipper to do the job, but even for him it was too big pill to swallow. However he tried as much as he could, which is clearly visible by the fact, Dhoni has scored 63 runs and all the other 10 players put together scored just 62 runs. In the end Mumbai Indians won their first ever IPL trophy and became the champs of IPL 2013/Season 6.

However even before Mumbai could soak in the happiness of lifting the cup, Sachin announced himself saying that he is retiring from the IPL cricket. Expected him to play for one more season, but still Legend has made his call when his team has delivered a the icing in cake for him.

Mumbai Indians won the match 23 runs…

Mumbai Indians are the champions Indian Premier League Season 6…

Awards & Winners of IPL 2011:

Young Player of the Tournament – Sanju Samson of Rajasthan Royals.

Catch of the season – Gurkreet Mann Singh of Kings XI Punjab (for the catch of Ross Taylor)

Longest Six of the tournament – Chris Gayle (119 meters against PWI)

Orange Cap – Michael Hussey (733 runs in 17 IPL innings)

Purple Cap – Dwayne Bravo (32 wickets in 17 innings)

Fair play award – Chennai Super Kings

Most valuable Player – Shane Watson of Rajasthan Royals.

Interesting Stats IPL 6 Day 54:

– This is just the 13th match out of 37 played in Eden gardens won by team batting first.

– Mitchell Johnson now has 16 wickets in powerplay overs highest by any bowler for this season; he was closely followed by Mohit Sharma with 15.

– Rohit Sharma has just scored 12 runs in all the three playoff matches.

– 3/34 is the worst powerplay score for Mumbai for this season.

– This is fourth time a team has lost 6 wickets before scoring 50 runs, CSK have been there twice and both against Mumbai.

– History continues to repeat as table toppers in league stage have never won the tournament, this time CSK loses it after topping the table.

– 4/42 by Bravo is the second most expensive spell in IPL after picking 4 wickets.

– 148 runs target set Mumbai Indians is the lowest for an IPL final which is held in India. Deccan’s set 143 in 2009 but it was in SA.

– This is also the first time Mumbai have defeated Chennai in a knockout situation games.

– Dwayne Bravo became the first bowler to pick 32 wickets in an IPL season, previous best was 28 by Malinga.

– It is an ironical fact none of the Orange cap winner’s have been able to help their team to win the trophy, IPL 1 – Shaun Marsh, IPL 2 – Matthew Hayden, IPL 3 – Sachin, IPL 4 and 5 – Chris Gayle IPL 6 – M Hussey.

– It is also an ironical fact that Chennai have lost all their matches played on a Sunday in this season, and continued the trend even in finals.

I never thought I would write the top heading for this season, that what it looked like, it was just time before KKR team would have decided to make Hard hitting Yusuf Pathan sit in bench but it was not to be.

Defending Champions need to win all their remaining games to qualify for Play off. Royals won the toss and decided to Bat first, a slow start but strange & bizarre tactics fro Dravid kept the runs in bay and wickets kept on falling without anyone consolidating the fall. Dravid coming at no.8 didn’t help any cause. KKR also bowled well and kept the pressure always. Royals trying to defend 133 runs, started off well by picking 2 quick wickets but that it, Both Kallis & Yusuf Pathan ensured they crossed the line without any more fuss. Pathan got almost close a Half century and missed by a run, when Kallis struck a boundary when team need 3 runs of 18 balls.

Kolkata Knight Riders won the match by 8 wickets with 16 balls to spare…

Standings as on DAY 31:

Interesting Stats IPL 6 Day 31:

– Dravid batting at the 8th position today is the first time in his IPL career.

– Bisla scored the 400th six for this season.

– After 11 innings Yusuf Pathan has gone past 30 runs in IPL.

– Rajasthan have never won a match scoring less than 135 runs, now the wack record stands 12-0.

A Game of D’s, Dhoni Vs Dravid, Mass Vs Class… Always a treat to watch this combination for any cricket lover and definitely for me too…Dravid won the Toss and decided to Bat first, A simple one liner was the royals batting, Just Watson show all the way, Showed no mercy to any bowler ad he hardly worried about what length or line they bowled, Sheer display of Watto Powerhouse which allowed him to go past first century mark in this season of IPL. Binny and other Rajasthan players played around him to get to a score of 185 runs in 20 overs.

Chasing 185+ is always tough for any team and if one team could do with ease then it has to be CSK with the kind of batting line up they have, Only problem for them is Raina & Badrinath have not come to form yet. But it gave an opportunity today to the Later to get back his golden knick with bat, who scored his first six in this season IPL & first fifty of this season. Raina also empowered Hussey all the way who looked aggressive right from the word go and always kept the required run rate under control. At one stage when Dravid pulled a stunning run out & wickets of Jadeja + Dhoni trickled a small confusion in the CSK dugout, but Bravo ensured to clear the ropes comfortably once in the last over to get past the win line in style with a ball to spare…

Chennai Super Kings won the match by 5 wickets with 1 ball to spare…

Interesting Stats IPL 6 Day 20:

– Shane Watson scored the first century of this season of IPL; it is also the 25th century for IPL tournament in all seasons.

– Watson’s 101 runs over shined Shewag’s 95* for the highest score for this season.

– Shane Watson’s Century is also the fourth one for a Rajasthan Royal Player.

– Out of 7 innings Murali Vijay is out for a single digit in 4 of them.

– 58 runs scored by CSK in the powerplay overs is the highest for them in this season.

– This season has been made to wait longest to get the first century (30 matches), previous season was the slowest which took 18 matches.

– This is the first time Rajasthan Royals have lost a match when they have scored more than 162 runs, their record stands 15 – 0 till today, as now it will be rewritten as 15-1.

– Suresh Raina scored his 15th IPL fifty and also his first six for this season.

– Ravindra Jadeja scored his 3rd IPL duck and first as a Chennai Super King.

– 49 runs conceded by Kevon Cooper is the highest in any T20 international game.

– This is fourth time in IPL out of 25 occasions an IPL century has ended up in a losing side, previous century scorer are Symonds, Yusuf Pathan, Tendulkar & now Watson.

– Michael Hussey became the second player after Virat Kohli to breach 300 runs mark for this season.

– Both 185 runs target set yesterday by PWI and today by RR are achieved by chasing team exactly in the penultimate ball of the match, this is also the second match for CSK to win a game with just a ball to spare.

Prince of Kolkata returns to his home ground Eden Garden as the opposition skipper, Must Win situation, a lose here will put Pune Warriors out of contention for this year’s IPL. KKR on a winning roll, will like to continue the same without doubt.

Gambhir won the toss and without any hesitation decided to bat first, and got off to one of the best starts for this season, When Gambhir departed to a well made fifty, KKR were 113/1 in 12.3 overs. McCullum followed skipper soon, Some tight bowling & brilliant fielding kept KKR under pressure and runs dried up totally. Eventually KKR finished with 150/5 in 20 overs. Dada would be very happy as they restricted KKR under the par score, for Pune, Mathews was the strike bowler.

Clarke opened the innings with Uthappa, but even before both could get started Marchant de Lange who is playing his first game for this season picked up both the openers. For some reason Dada didn’t come to bat upfront and kept him at the back, may be he was avoiding to bat in front of his home crowd, but that was not the case as Pune Warriors fell like pack of cards, with score 55/5 in 8 overs and Ganguly had to walk in as the 7th Batsmen. To speak genuinely he was more than OK than the other games he played. He along with Mathews tried to bring back Pune into game and they almost did as well. Both brought the game so close as 24 needed from 16 balls one stage, but its the mystery off-spinner Sunil Narine again who has been main tormentor for Pune, as he picked 4-1-13-1. As the wickets fell at wrong time and Pune fell 7 runs short to victory.

KKR won the match by 7 runs.

Match 48:

Rajasthan Royals Vs Kings XI Punjab

Again a must win game for Royals, Dravid won the toss and decided to bat first, to note on front, they made five changes with respect to the last game. They dropped Shah & Hogg to get Shaun Tait & Botha back in squad. Rahane failed early today as he was gone for 5 runs. But Skipper continued where he left, scored another 46 runs along side with Watson’s 36, Menaria’s 34. Late strike from Hodge got Royals to 177/6 in 20 overs. Ryan Harris picked up 4 wickets, Thanks to Shaun marsh who plucked two impossible catches.

KXIP started off in a wrong note as Mandeep fell in the second over, Saini as well didn’t stick too long, perished for Shaun Tait’s pace. Double strike came in the consecutive overs, for Royals were Hussey mistimed one to long on and Marsh next over missed a straight forward ball to hear sound of timber. Scorecard read 59/4 in 8 overs. From then on it was kind of ritual that KXIP has to play out, no excitement what so ever. Azhar tried few gimmicks for some time along with debutant Gurkreet Singh. Nothing much though as KXIP folded out for 134/8 in 20 overs.

Match 66, a very Important one for Mumbai Indians as KXIP knocking their doors very closely after KKR pulling a victory yesterday. Sachin Won the toss and decided to Bat first, As always Warney was very happy ever to play his last outing in IPL as a player in the field. Without doubt they Royals wanted their skipper to walk off with a famous victory, and what they do, bowl like hero’s and field like arrows… Nothing u could ask more, as Mumbai lost their wickets in the regular intervals, and even long standing Rohit Sharma could do much in the end overs, even after scoring his first fifty of the season. Mumbai Indians finished with 133/5 in 20 overs. Needed a good opening partnership to seal the game, but no one thought that the opening partnership alone will seal the game. Yes it was the case, as Shane Watson was in real mood to give Warnie a warm send off, as he blasted one of the Mumbai’s best bowler of the tournament Malinga over the park 3 times, each one was more majestic than the previous. On the other hand, Dravid played a more sensible knock to knock around and give strike to the tormentor, and that doesn’t mean he let away loose balls, as he punished few of them to fences too.. Overall a first 10 wicket victory for the season. Thanks to Dravid and Watson duo for it. I am not forgetting Shane Warne, who is been a legend in this game, none could have written script for this more befitting farewell for the Hero….